Saturday, February 21, 2009

Flowers on a Dark, Rainy Day

It hasn't rained yet, but it's going to. The doorbell rang this morning, a little after 10 am. I was up, but not dressed. It was for me. On my front porch stands Riley's friend, we'll call him "E", his mom and a bunch of flowers. You are probably asking "Why?" It's really sweet. Here's the short version of a long story...

Aren't these pretty?

Anyway, there's a boy at Riley and Quinn's school. He's in Riley's class, and he goes to Adventure Time (extended care) after school. For the past several weeks, this kid has been tormenting Riley-verbally only. We have been advising him on what to do, say, etc. Things happen at school and then things happen at AT. I've gone round and round with the AT staff to do something. They are intimidated by the crazy mother of this crazy child. I had not wanted to fight Riley's battle. He has to learn to stand on his own two feet, and stand up for himself. For whatever reason, he can't or won't. It all came to a head the Thursday morning before we left for Disneyland. Something took place which brought Riley to tears. E got mad. He stood up to the bully, and in the process called the bully a not so nice name. When E's mom called just to give us a heads up, it seemed like E would be getting into trouble. This did not sit well with me. At this point I decide that I have to talk to the teacher as she has no idea what has been going on for the last several weeks, and I wanted her help in helping Riley to confront this kid if future situations arise. I could not let one child be punished for standing up to the bully, who if not told on, would continue to harass people. Anyway, long story short (too late), I spoke with Riley's very awesome teacher, and she saw the situation clearly-turns out the bully and his friend were not being truthful, and had made some stuff up. So the flowers this morning were sort of an apology for me having to get involved (although I didn't see it that way-I wanted justice). I thanked him for being a good friend, and accepted the flowers.

Word for the day: Refreshing. It's so refreshing to see parents having their children do things because "it's the right thing to do," and taking on responsibility for their actions. I think E's mom truly felt guilty that I had to get involved, but really I had no choice in the matter. This kid was not going to stop until somebody did something. All I did was tattle, but hey if that little creep stays away from my kid, then I can handle being the tattletale. You might also like to know that the bully's friend wrote Riley a note of apology-he has awesome parents too. Did we get anything from the bully himself? Ha. No.